Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
(3) As in the development of personal morality, the hostility of
inanimate nature, coupled with the urgency of inner needs, has also
played its part in the socialization of man. The satisfying of hunger,
protection against storm, flood, and other physical calamities, is
greatly forwarded by cooperation. The rearing of a shelter, for
example, that shall be at all comfortable and secure, demands the labor
of several. With the development of civilization, mutual assistance
and the division of labor become more and more imperative. As man
developed more and more into a reflective animal, the comprehension
of these advantages became clearer and clearer to him. Resentment against
mere individualism grew keener; and any member whose laziness or passions
led him to pull apart from the common good had to incur the anger of
his fellows. Under these three heads--the selection of the maternal
instinct, with its potentialities of universal sympathy, through the
struggle between individuals; the selection of the various powers of
loyalty and cooperation through the struggle between groups; and the
production of cooperative habits through the struggle with inanimate
nature-we may group the causes of social morality in man. How has
morality been fostered by the tribe? Social morality, like personal
morality, is passed on from generation to generation by heredity and
by imitation. Both, in historic man, are also deliberately cultivated
by the tribe. We have discriminated between the two aspects of morality
for theoretic reasons which will later become apparent; but no
discrimination is possible or needful for the savage. Courage and
prudence and industriousness and temperance in its members are assets
of the tribe, and are included among its requirements. We shall now
consider in what ways the group brings pressure to bear upon the
individual and influences his moral development.
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